#7: Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies [EP]

Even though this is longer than many LPs I own, this is allegedly an EP. Fine. Just...fine. Goddammit.

Along with the band's relatively impenetrable self-titled album, this is easily some of band's more subdued material, with much more focus on acoustic guitars and a general absence of cymbal crashes.

Released in 1994, this was the first EP to ever hit the #1 spot on the charts. Also, it contains the band's only #1 hit, "No Excuses." Besides that track and "I Stay Away," I still have managed to remain pretty unaware of most of these songs, which presented a bit of a problem when I saw the band last fall, and the mid-show acoustic section was built around many of these tracks. Whereas I felt they all blended together in a live setting, hearing the studio (self-produced) versions really opens the songs up. Tracks like "Whale & Wasp," during which I almost nodded off at the show, are given more of an electric, sorrowful stroke on the record, which, in this case, I connect to better than just a straightforward acoustic version.

So much attention is paid to the band's more rockin' tracks, with most tending to lean towards "Man in the Box" and "Would?" and "Them Bones" and the like, but this record sounds like almost another band entirely. Perhaps the band gets written off a bit due to excessive gloom and their fascination with sludginess, both on the rockers and the softer tunes, but Jerry Cantrell's playing shines just as much, if not more, on acoustic guitar, and suggests that maybe even though the band was tremendously successful, there's still a bit of underrating happening at this point in terms of the band as pure songwriters. If Springsteen or even someone like James Taylor did these, they'd be considered to be in a higher echelon of songs.

Obviously, I'm not going out on a limb by extolling the virtues of a band that's sold fifteen million albums, but there seems to be even more going on here than I was aware of. I've been listening to Alice in Chains since I was ten, but it seems that I keep discovering more and more. I never imagined their catalog would be this deep.

"No Excuses" from MTV Unplugged